Imagine a Bolder Boulder contested in quiet solitude and empty streets with no crowds gathered on lawns and sidewalks to cheer for runners and no big stadium finish where participants are greeted by an atmosphere to rival college football game days.

Imagine running the race with the rumble of your 1967 pickup truck serving as pace car and the only significant competing sound to your breathing and shoes hitting the pavement.

Imagine winning and beating a two-time Olympic medalist in the process.

That is the memory Ric Rojas has relived countless times in interviews, in his role as a running coach and in private reflection since 1979 when he won the inaugural Bolder Boulder and became the first person to cross the 10K's finish line, which was located in North Bolder Park at the time.

His winning time was 29 minutes and 33 seconds. Sandy Simmons was the first women's finisher in 1979 in 39:55.

It's almost unbelievable to Rojas that 33 years later, the race will celebrate the arrival of the 1,000,000th finisher at some point around mid-morning on Monday.

"It's hard for me to get a handle on a million people," Rojas said. "You just have to stop and think about that number for awhile. A million people? That doesn't compute."

Rojas first started running competitively back in the 1960s when a large field for a race was 50 competitors. He was an elite level runner in the 1970s with his victory over Frank Shorter in the first Bolder Boulder as proof.

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Shorter was the standard bearer in American men's distance running at the time with two Olympic medals to his credit. He finished second to Rojas on that first Bolder Boulder day but won the race two years later for the first and only time, establishing a new record beating Rojas' winning time.

Bosley said at some point on race day, he will probably try to get Rojas and Mr. or Mrs. One Million together for introductions and a photo.

Rojas actually accounts for somewhere between 12 and 15 of the one million finishers because that is how many times he has participated in the race. It's also just one of hundreds of races he has won. Rojas also has won the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco (1975), The Boilermaker in Utica, N.Y. (1978) and the Lilac Bloomsday in Spokane, Wash. (1979).

He doesn't plan to run in the Bolder Boulder this year as a spry 59-year-old. He will be on the course however on his bike watching more than 100 individuals whom he coaches.

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